Fast Company editor Safian leaving after 12 years

Robert Safian, who has been editor of Fast Company magazine for the past 12 years, is leaving to pursue a new opportunity.

Sami Main of Adweek reports, “Safian will stay with his team through the end of its upcoming issue, but will look into other opportunities that he’s continually turned down over the years. ‘I consistently told people I wasn’t looking to leave Fast Company,’ he said, ‘but now it’s time for me to explore the opportunities I’d been deferring for so long.’

“That said, Safian doesn’t have an immediate plan; he’s been approached him with advisory boards, management consulting or media investment opportunities. While he hasn’t made a decision yet, he may decide to leave the media industry, as he was intending to do before joining Fast Company at Joe Mansueto’s invitation (Mansueto Ventures has owned Fast Company and Inc. since 2005).

“‘One of the benefits of working at Fast Company is that you get to have insights and connections into so many different kinds of businesses,’ said Safian. ‘You can’t help but open your eyes to the new ways you could provide service.'”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.